Burning bamboo
by blahosaurus
Summary: Human ways are hard to change, prejudice, hypocritical, don't hanyous know this best of all? Complete


Burning bamboo

Shiori sat down, panting slightly from the run, but a smirk was being formed on her lips, and not for the first time.

Her mother had tried to protect her, but she couldn't, it was as simple as that. She was 16 now, and she couldn't have her mother trailing behind, especially when they lived so far away from the village.

Shiori had ignored her mother's protests, for it was the same each time she had to go to the village to get something; food, cloth, material.

Mother would insist on going herself, claiming that Shiori was just a child, but the girl just rolled her eyes, grabbed the money, and leaving with a smile. She was a half-demon, and that meant she was stronger than any human.

It meant she was weaker than any demon.

But Shiori had gotten over it. She remember, a few years ago, when an inu hanyou had come and saved her, saved her from losing the one person who kept her faith alive, the hope that she was not some filthy beast, the wish that her blood did not make her tainted, vile, disgusting. But she loved her father, and his blood she was not ashamed of. That Inu hanyou had taught her that, and she thought about him often. He had had the same look in his eyes as she.

As if he had been saved.

And the image was with her to this day.

She rolled her shoulders to loosen the knots from being tense all day. Like it wasn't enough that everyone she passed whispered and stared unashamedly.

And then they called her bad mannered!

Do what I say, not what I do, eh?

Once they had seen her, they put out the bamboo piled and started burning it, and that was one smell she simply could not stand, but she had endured it, like she had taught herself to.

But then the throwing had started. Like every other time. But she had been expecting it.

Eggs

Rotten vegetables

Pebbles

Rocks

One started, and like the lemmings they were, all followed. But Shiori was very proud to say that not even one had touched her this time.

Not even one.

And she hadn't even put a barrier up either!

She watched as the river passed lazily, and saw the pink hues of the sky reflected against it. She stood up with a sigh. It still stung, each time she was shunned away, but she had her mother, someone to take care of, someone to take care of her, and that was enough.

For now.

She had to admit that thinking about the future scared the hell out of her. Her mother wouldn't live forever, and she had a longer life span anyways, but she didn't want to be alone.

That was her fear. Her single, only fear.

To be alone.

But she shook her head, picking up the bag with goods she had managed to scare people out of, and turned, only to stop dead.

A human.

But she knew this human. He had been her main bully when she was younger. Because of him and the scabs that had decorated her body, she had seen her mother cry.

He had made her mother cry.

He had made her make her mother cry.

"What do you want?" It even surprised her, how animalistic her snarls could be. The man did not flinched back from the sound, instead he stepped out of the shadows, revealing himself to her, and she tensed in anticipation.

Any second now…

"Shiori…" Her name spoken. It made her start. That had been the first time anyone except her mother had used her name in a long time.

It was unsettling.

She said nothing, and the look in his eyes stopped her from turning and going home, ignoring him, for it was a spark she had never seen before. He took a step closer. She tensed further.

Any second now…

"If you need anything from the village, tell me. I will get it for you." The words surprised her, to say the least, though she let it not show on her face.

A trap? Probably

Then why that pleading look in his eyes?

"I…I want to help." He said, his deep voice quiet, and she knew it was true.

He wanted to help?

How nice

How hope-filling

How strange

How alluring

How heart lifting

How generous

How impossible

"I don't need your help!" she growled, and in a flash of tan and silver, she was gone, the lilac ribbon she used to gather her now waist length hair rippling like a river.

But by far, this was not the last time she saw him.

It was not the last time she ran away from his eyes.


End file.
